I was recently invited to attend a preview of a new temporary exhibition at Storm King Art Center, an open-air sculpture park in upstate New York.

In the Hudson Valley, about an hour north of New York City, Storm King sits on more than 500 acres of rolling hills, fields, and woodlands, and is home to a collection of more than 100 large-scale sculptures by artists including Alexander Calder, Maya Lin, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, Claes Oldenburg, and Richard Serra, David Smith.

Its two special exhibitions for the summer season are Lynda Benglis: Water Sources and Outlooks: Luke Stettner. With more than a dozen outdoor sculptures, as well as more inside the museum’s building, it is the first exhibition to display a major grouping of Benglis’s large-scale sculptures and fountains, which she has been producing since the early 1980s.

Lynda Benglis: Water Sources

This piece, North, South, East, West, features a crustacean-like piece called Crescendo, which sits atop the very first water fountain she made in 1983-84 for the New Orleans World Fair (it was lost for a long time after the World Fair went bankrupt.)

The surroundings of her early life influence her work. Benglis grew up in Louisiana, always around water and a witness to oil spills in bayous.

Lynda Benglis: Water Sources

This 2014 piece, named Pink Ladies, is inspired by a kite Benglis saw at a kite-flying festival in Ahmedabad, India. Benglis reminds us that pink is a natural colour, though we may not see it as such. The texture, she says, is inspired by the brain coral she sees on her frequent scuba diving trips.

Lynda Benglis: Water Sources

Hills and Clouds, her most recent work, glows after dark. Natural phosphorescence, such as in bioluminescent waters and phosphorescent caves, in another of Benglis’ indfluences. She also cites the glow-in-the-dark displays at funhouses in the South that she visited as a child.

Storm King are offering special evening visits to see this piece glow in the dark. Even without the full effect, in a blazing hot June sun in my case, it is well worth the visit for the rare opportunity to see these pieces.

The One World Trade Center’s new observation deck has recently opened and I visited as part of a Walks of New York tour.

Led by local New Yorkers, these small group tours hone in on specific subject (say, photography) or neighbourhood (eg. the Lower East Side) and go deep, but not too deep–less facts and figures, more personal histories.

The main draw of Walks of New York’s WTC Tour & One World Observatory tour may seem to be the pre-reserved tickets to the observatory, but prior to entering the WTC the guide leads a fascinating two-hour tour of the surrounding area. I rarely visit this area myself, feeling there’s something not quite right about gawking around the disaster sites, but I was very glad to have taken this tour and to have learned a more personal side to the events of that day–and the weeks, months and years afterwards.

The tour began at St. Paul’s Chapel, New York City’s oldest public building, which, amazingly, was not damaged at all during the attacks. Even these 18th-century chandeliers were left intact.

St Paul’s Chapel

The church soon became a refuge for the rescue workers who couldn’t get home after their 12-hour shifts. Messages of support came in from around the world–including these cranes from Nagasaki and Hiroshima survivors.

St. Paul’s Chapel

This bell was presented to St. Paul’s in solidarity from the Mayor of London.

St. Paul’s Chapel

The new transit hub at Fulton Center has recently been completed.

Fulton Center

The mix of old and new architecture in Lower Manhattan is striking. This is the Woolworth building, completed in 1913, parts of which are being developed into luxury apartments.

Woolworth Building

Woolworth Building

Speaking of luxury apartments, here is “New York by Gehry,” the tallest residential tower in the Americas.

Frank Gehry

Modern and Romanesque

Santiago Calatrava’s World Trade Center Transit Hub is years overdue and millions of dollars over budget. Still, here’s a look at the Oculus in construction.

The Oculus in construction

And the PATH station’s Platform B.

PATH Station at WTC

Brookfield Place, when it was called the World Financial Center was terribly damaged on 9/11. The Winter Garden, which had all the windows blown out, has been beautifully restored and has been expanded to hold a variety of great food vendors, including Le District, a kind of French Eataly.

Brookfield Place

The Oculus from Brookfield Plaza

Waterfront Plaza

Memorial

So to the observatory. Super high-speed elevators whisk visitors 102 floors up in about 40 seconds. During that brief time, video screens inside the elevators show a CGI timelapse of New York City history–the landscape of Lower Manhattan from the year 1500 until today. It was one of my favourite parts.

Then, upstairs you are obliged to watch a bit of a kitschy video celebrating NYC before the screen goes up to reveal the skyline to cheers from the crowd.

Thankfully that is the only cringey part of the experience and you are then left alone to wander the observation deck and take in the 360-degree views at your leisure.

One World Observatory

One World Observatory

One World Observatory

One World Observatory

One World Observatory

One World Observatory

One World Observatory

Thanks to Walks of New York for hosting me on their tour.

]]>http://thesixtrees.com/2015/06/08/one-world-observatory-with-walks-of-new-york/feed/040.711801 -74.01312040.711801-74.013120One World ObservatoryKarenOne World ObservatorySt Paul's ChapelSt. Paul's ChapelSt. Paul's ChapelFulton CenterWoolworth BuildingWoolworth BuildingFrank GehryModern and RomanesqueThe Oculus in constructionPATH Station at WTCBrookfield PlaceThe Oculus from Brookfield PlazaWaterfront PlazaMemorialOne World ObservatoryOne World ObservatoryOne World ObservatoryOne World ObservatoryOne World ObservatoryOne World ObservatoryOne World ObservatoryLa casona de la sagüesera, Little Havana, Miamihttp://thesixtrees.com/2015/06/03/little-havana/
http://thesixtrees.com/2015/06/03/little-havana/#commentsWed, 03 Jun 2015 22:35:17 +0000http://thesixtrees.com/?p=2547Continue reading →]]>A year ago I was invited to attend LE Miami, the luxury travel show. The event has a partnership with American Excursionist who organise bespoke tours designed by experts and led by local personalities. I went on their Little Havana Cultural Immersion tour, led by a cultural anthropologist, which took me to Calle Ocho to experience el calor Latino.

Our first stop was La casona de la sagüesera, the home of the identical twin Cuban artists, Ronald and Nelson Curras, who work in ceramics and have transformed their house into a living piece of art. La sagüesera, I was told, is Spanglish for “southwest.”

Throughout the home–which may be turned into a museum one day–are images of O’ Shun, the most popular of the orishas (spirits) in santería, the religion that developed in the African slave communities of the Cuba’s sugar plantations by adopting elements of Spanish-imposed Catholicism while maintaining beliefs from Africa, primarily those of Nigeria’s Yoruba tribe.

Incorporated into the murals and mosaics throughout the house are frequent images of sunflowers–the presence of which in Cuban art invoke O’ Shun.

I just loved the energy and colour of La casona de la sagüesera and feel very lucky to have been invited inside.

Leith never used to be so cool; in fact it was a pretty bad neighbourhood when I lived in Edinburgh, just a few years after Trainspotting, which was set there, was made into a movie.

Now, the area is filled with hip bars (like Boda Bar above) and shops and is home to some really interesting festivals, particularly the arts festival LeithLate. One of LeithLate’s initiatives is the Shutter Project and Mural Project, which brings street artists to the area to paint shop shutters and other vacant spaces. This mural below was one of my favourites. Painted by Guido van Helten, it depicts one of the last surviving members of the 1915 Quintinshill rail disaster in his old age. 200 men lost their lives in the disaster — the worst rail crash in the United Kingdom. Most of them were soldiers from the Leith Battalion heading to Gallipoli.

Guido van Helten, Leith

There are murals throughout the neighbourhood, including this one by Skint Richie on the shutter of Origano. But to see them, you need to get there early, before the shops open for business and the shutters go up.

When I look back on the summer I spent working in Reykjavík I always feel foolish that I spent so little time outside of the capital. I was busy and consumed by my own little life, but it is ridiculous that I lived in Reykjavík from June to August 2006 without seeing very much of the country.

I attempt to redress this by taking advantage of Icelandair’s free stopover on my once/twice yearly trips home to Scotland from my current home of New York City. Like taking small sips of fresh Icelandic air, I rent a car in Reykjavík and try to gulp down as much as I can with the few days I allow myself before heading back to the real world — and the filthy air and grime of New York City.

My most recent trip, in early May, took me onto Route 1 and to the black sand beach of Vík in the southwest of the country. A late learner and always a nervous driver, I feel strangely calm driving on the Icelandic roads. Once out of the city, as the otherworldly landscape begins to reveal itself, I perhaps find myself a little too relaxed, frequently slamming on the brakes to to a photo of some jagged mountain, shimmering waterfall or cute horse. It’s usually OK, once out of the city I am often along on the road for as far as I can see.

]]>http://thesixtrees.com/2015/01/02/my-favourite-street-art-of-2014/feed/0Stinkfish, MalmoKarenIMG_8411Toxicomano in Bogota. September 2014Abey Charron in San Juan. November 2014.Hero de Janeiro in Amsterdam. October 2014.Icy and Sot in Brooklyn. July 2014.Shepard Fairey in Miami. June 2014.Tatiana Fazlalizadeh in Manhattan. March 2014.Icy and Sot in Brooklyn. October 2014.Artist ? Baltimore. April 2014Swoon in Manhattan. September 2014.Bastardilla in Bogota. September 2014.Collaboration. Malmo. October 2014.The Street Art of San Juan, Puerto Ricohttp://thesixtrees.com/2014/12/12/the-street-art-of-san-juan-puerto-rico/
http://thesixtrees.com/2014/12/12/the-street-art-of-san-juan-puerto-rico/#commentsFri, 12 Dec 2014 23:52:26 +0000http://thesixtrees.com/?p=2405]]>I went (back) to Puerto Rico last month and saw some amazing street art, primarily around the Santurce area. As well as beautiful art works, these pieces were really striking for their thought-provoking takes on such themes as imperialism, capitalism.

]]>http://thesixtrees.com/2014/12/12/the-street-art-of-san-juan-puerto-rico/feed/0AbeyCharronStreetArtSanJuanKarenIMG_9126IMG_9158IMG_9150puertoricostreetartsanjuansanturceRobyn and Röyksopp at Pier 97, New York Cityhttp://thesixtrees.com/2014/08/31/robyn-and-royksopp-at-pier-97-new-york-city/
http://thesixtrees.com/2014/08/31/robyn-and-royksopp-at-pier-97-new-york-city/#commentsSun, 31 Aug 2014 21:43:22 +0000http://thesixtrees.com/?p=2341]]>Over at AudioFemme, I reviewed Robyn and Röksopp’s New York stop on their Do It Again tour. Here’s a few extra pictures, including warm-up act, Zhala.

LE Miami is a luxury travel trade show now in its second year. But it’s also a lot more than that.

LE Miami is closely tracking the shift in “luxury travel” and the shake up of the market. Traditional luxury, according to LE Miami, belongs to the past. The emergence of creative, design-led and community-integrated ‘lifestyle’ hotels have transformed the industry, and the growth of the ‘creative class’ has driven demand for travel products that are unique, culturally connected and bespoke. “Consequently”, LE Miami says, “the contemporary definition of luxury isn’t about money. It’s about creating an inimitable experience based on style, content, design, authenticity, storytelling and innovation”.

Reflecting this ethos, LE Miami invites a very select group of travel brands to their annual show in South Beach, where they can connect with buyers in a way they cannot anywhere else. And it’s a lot of fun, too. Pink sunglasses are handed out to every guest, DJ Jared Dietch spins all day, while the evenings .. the evenings are for parties. Over the top parties surrounded by street art Wynwood Walls on the first night; featuring a group of syncronised swimmers at the W South Beach’s pool deck on the second. I suspect that some of the best connections are made outside of the conference hall.

Prior to the awards show, it was the Ministry of Ideas session where four travel experts spoke at length about their work and their take on what LE Miami calls “the shift in luxury.” Alan Faena (of the Faena Hotel Buenos Aires) started by saying “I don’t personally believe in the word luxury. To get through to more people, we need to take out the word” then told us a little more about his work in progress: the Faena Hotel here in Miami. Faena is collaborating on the project with Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin, who will be handling the interiors, uniforms, and cultural programming for the hotel, which is just one part of Faena’s huge Miami development project (we drove past the site and it takes up a whole block ) and will, like in Buenos Aires, include an arts centre. “Our collaboration with Baz Luhrmann is spectacular”. Faena said at the show. “What he does in movies, we do in real life.”

The Faena development is definitely set to bring something new to Miami. Reminding the audience of what he did in Buenos Aires, where he opened up a hotel and arts centre at the then-run-down Puerto Madero (now home to the most expensive real estate in the city): “We started with an abandoned port in Buenos Aires and today our arts centre works with the best art centres in the world.” A slogan on the scaffolding covering the Faena project site on Collins Avenue reads “You start with an idea. You end up with a culture.” And that seems to be what LE Miami is all about.

In May 1975, Kjartan Ragnarsson and Guðrún Ásmundsdóttir shot a slightly schlocky love scene for Iceland’s first ever feature film, Morðsaga (Murder Story). As Guðrún, playing a bored housewife, fantasises about ripping off the shirt from Kjartan’s, playing a plumber, chest, she cries out: “Take me here, by the dishwasher!” Legend has it that the day after the scene was filmed, the performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson was conceived.

Walking into the fourth floor of the New Museum on New York City’s Lower East Side the other day, I heard this refrain sung in a tone mournful and dreamlike by a collection of musicians slouched across the space. “This is it. Is this it?” They sung, again and again. “I’m desperate. Take me here, by the dishwasher.” These are lines from the film, put to music by former Sigur Ros keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson, and for two months, until the end of June, they will be sung, without pause, by 10 musicians for the length of the museum’s opening hours while the love scene plays on a loop behind them.

The musicians each play guitar and sing the lyrics alone, in a troubadour style, but as each layers on top of the other, the sound became more hypnotic the longer I lingered. The few visitors to the space circled the periphery of the makeshift performance space but one man, eyes half closed and seemingly entranced, moved to the centre, inches from the foot of a mattress that was presently unoccupied but strewn with a old duvet.

The fogged up old movie plays on the screen, over and over, while the musicians sit in armchairs under old-fashioned lamps, slouch in couches, or sit on mattresses. Some get up and walk around a bit; probably just for something to do. Beer bottles, that come out of the fridge set up by the far wall, lie on the floor, beside thrown-off sneakers. At some points the voices flag but they never fall away.

In an interview for the exhibition’s catalogue, Ragnar explains the significance of the troubadour:

I think it’s significant that it is not a band playing together but somehow, accidentally, it becomes harmonious. All the troubadours need to be in their own world while performing this work. If there is too much interaction, then it becomes like a happy jam session rather than meditative and reflective. I have always liked the idea of the troubadour and how it is so pathetic yet so glorious and somehow powerful — trying to tell some truth with those three chords. It is an art form that changed the world and moved mountains, yet there is something so pathetic about it. I think that this idea of being “alone, together” is my secret socialist propaganda, because it is what makes society beautiful — we are all alone and together, we become harmony.”